Disentanglement
by MonPetitLoupDeMort
Summary: Just a few possible post-game endings among many. A set of entirely unrelated one-shots on different 'Asch or Luke' post-game scenarios. Sporadic updates as more possibilities and interpretations come to me.
1. Inextricable

As they walk away from the selenia field with their returned comrade, Jade calls for a halt.

"Since no one else seems inclined to ask, what is your name?" he inquires with seeming nonchalance.

Both Natalia and Tear make to answer for him, but are stopped by Guy and Anise respectively, who both recognize that look on Jade's face. That intently and earnestly serious look that Jade only wore in the direst of situations.

Their companion just smiles at them, his eyes asking teasingly if this is really necessary. His face, entire demeanor, say that he is just so happy to be alive, back. Couldn't this wait?

"Please, answer the question." And now even Tear and Natalia can hear the strain through Jade's clipped and professional voice.

"Sure, whatever makes you happy," he lilts in amusement. He begins a mock-bow of introduction, eyes still teasing, "My name is... is..." He pauses, a confused expression spreading across his face.

He suddenly clutches his head, and what a familiarly discomforting gesture that is, eyes full of terror before being scrunched tightly shut. "I- I..." he manages to choke out before abruptly falling to his knees and curling in on himself sobbing.

Jade reaches out a hand, almost as if he wanted to comfort the boy, but that can't be right. He doesn't do comfort. But it wasn't supposed to go like this, Jade thought. The boy was supposed to either lie to save them heartache or tell the truth and shatter the happy reunion. Jade had wanted it over and done with before their hopes got built up any higher.

It doesn't matter what he intended because he is blocked by Guy anyway, who is now kneeling before the sobbing boy, while the rest look on dumbfounded.

"I think you've done enough." Guy says coldly, when it becomes apparent that Jade is trying to make another attempt to get at the boy, still unsure of his own intentions.

The boy looks up brokenly, scared and sad, as Guy comforts him until he finally manages to force out a thought, choppy and uneven and quiet and babbling though it be.

"I... don't know. I don't know what my name is. Which my name is mine..." he whimpers softly, then looks like he can't take any more and buries his face in Guy's shoulder as Guy rubs his back.

Natalia quietly starts to cry, while Tear fights back a sob of her own.

Jade just watches the scene before him blankly while Anise moves to comfort him.


	2. Bound

The only hitch after the joyous reunion was when 'Luke' pulled Jade aside as they were leaving.

"Don't tell them," he said gruffly. Jade regarded him seriously.

"Keep acting this way, and I won't have to," he finally said.

Ashe scowled, but muttered, "Thanks."

Jade smiled blandly.

"Much better. You'd better go catch up to them. Take care."

It may have been suspicious, but after that, Jade made it a point to never be in a place where he'd have the chance or choice to meet him. If he were human, he'd have said it was too painful, but really, it was just too much of a bother to keep up the façade in the face of the transgressor-instigator himself, when even the periphery of it just from speaking with the others made him weary.


	3. Constrained

Luke comes back to them all smiles and laughter and happiness and life, because he knows that's what they need from him. He fills his place more than adequately, does his duties and so much more, but they can see something in him glinting hollow, void, unfillable.

Each of his friends, individually, entertains the notion that maybe he didn't come back to them. Maybe whatever was him died on that island long ago, and they should be mourning their friend instead of watching this tragically charming facsimile continue in his daily life. But they ignore it because it's Luke, and he's back, and they want that to be all that matters.

He knows, somehow, as natural as breathing, that it wasn't him that was supposed to return, to emerge, impossibly, from the death and destruction of the replicated Hod. He wasn't the one supposed to be saved, but he _had_ been saved, and again his life, be it birth or rebirth, is out of his hands.

He would have wanted to be the one to disappear, to die. He knows his motives are purely selfish. He also knows isn't strong enough to carry on this charade forever.

Asch, Luke decides, would have been strong enough, hard enough, to carry on, to not even need the charade, the mourning that is so evident in spite of his effort to not show it in his every grin and motion. It should have been Asch who returned, and he wonders who decided that it would be him?


	4. Thread

Inspired by a line in one of Laryna6's fics. You should probably go read them because they are all stunningly amazing.

* * *

He'd tried, tried so hard, but it was simply impossible.

No matter what he did, the other remained just a voice, no flicker of emotion, no ability of motion, and it was driving one stir-crazy and the other mad with guilt.

Maybe, he sometimes considered, he was just imagining things, creating it in his own mind so he didn't go insane with grief over having killed him entirely. But neither of them had wanted this, not this way.

And if he was crazy, at least he could have made the fantasy a satisfying one instead of this one that was driving him, them, him, deeper into despair with every moment passed.


	5. Tangled

Tear oftentimes wondered whether it really was Luke who had returned to them. She had watched him so carefully, trying to sense a naturalness or forced quality to his motions, reactions, that would let her divine the truth. But she could never decide definitively.

One day she would be sure it was him, the next she'd be just as sure it wasn't. She couldn't take this not knowing anymore, so she resolved to finally ask him the one question she thought would give her the absolute answer she sought. She wondered why she had been avoiding doing so for such a long time, but quickly pushed that thought away.

"Do you want to cut your hair again?" she asked him, all innocence and curiosity. He looked at her for a moment, then laughed in a self conscious, vaguely scornful way.

"It was such a stupid, insincere gesture," he began, then his face turned pensive, "But I did like who I was when it was short."

And she smiles at him, staying a short while longer before leaving, with no more answers than she had when she came.


	6. Interwoven

Coming back had been a miracle. It hadn't been possible to save both bodies, but with Lorelei's intervention they had been able to safely cohabitate the same body. It took a while to learn, to adjust, but had been worth it for Luke's vibrant elation and Asch's quiet contentment to see their friends again.

They hadn't really decided exactly whose body it was, or if that really even mattered, so they mostly just winged it on a daily basis. They were more interwoven than not sometimes, but that was fine because it was their choice to be that way this time, not a compulsion.

Asch is taking a backseat today. He's tired, and Luke's been poking at him, politely mind you, about wanting to do a few things. While Luke had learned to have some patience, Asch had also learned how to be alright with showing a little consideration for others.

Asch likes to hang around and watch, even when he isn't the one in control. Luke doesn't get offended, because he knows it's not lack of faith in his abilities, and while he suspects what it is, he doesn't ever push Asch on that point. They'd both spent far too much time alone in their lives.

Once they had explained, made their friends understand that yes, they were both back, and yes, they were both fine and fine with the situation, things had fallen into place far more normally and comfortably than any of them had ever expected.

Now that they knew what to look for, their friends could see the signs of the constant dialogue, playful spats and byplay the two engaged in. While both were active in the outside world, they never quite entirely left their own personal, inner world of just the two of them.

Luke meanders over to where Guy is standing, and waits for Guy to notice him. It'd become a favorite hobby of their friends to try to guess who they're talking to, once they discovered neither got offended when they got it wrong. Which had happened more often than not in those first few weeks back.

They had both changed a lot, partially because of the mental ramifications of their current situation, and partly because of the new accord and dialogue they had reopened before they could even accept such a solution. The biggest hurdle had been realizing and accepting that while they were each willing to die for the other, living with each other had been what they really wanted.

Guy looks him up and down, likely searching for a hint, but Luke refuses to say anything to make it any easier. Asch chuckles in their mind when Luke realizes with dismay that the cheerily stubborn expression he always wore when thinking that would give him away.

Since the jig is up anyway, Luke pouts sullenly at Guy.

"You only bring it on yourself by making it so easy, Luke," Guy says amiably, while Luke ignores the assent to that sentiment he feels from Asch. "Something up?" Guy inquires when Luke's expression turns a bit more serious.

"Nothing big," Luke begins, ignoring Asch's poke and the sentiment that it didn't feel 'not big' from the way Luke had been pestering him, "I just wanted to say 'Man, what a pain!'" After he finishes delivering his line, Luke drops the serious act and lets his goofy grin spread across his face.

Guy's eyes are misting over with memories, and he's smiling in that tender, vaguely bittersweet way, so Asch takes the chance to tease Luke, despite the fact that he's seen the memories, and knows exactly what those words mean.

_You're being stupid. _The thought carries with it a fondness, which almost makes Luke let it slide. Almost.

"'My hair grows fast'?" he mouths silently, waiting for the mental fireworks.

_Those- that was under extreme conditions of duress! _Asch sputters, taken aback that Luke even remembers that, much less was using it to turn his own favorite criticism of Luke back on himself.

"Some would say having you living in their head would be 'extreme conditions of duress'." Luke mouths back, quite pleased with himself. He's been waiting to use this tangent for weeks. He hadn't found any other way to properly express what he's feeling, thinking.

_And your excuse for before? _Asch's attempt to turn the situation back to his own advantage comes right on cue.

"The extreme duress of not having you living in my head," Luke mouths smugly.

_And you're being stupid again. _This thought carries with it the feeling of dawning comprehension of what Luke is trying to say, and amused exasperation at him trying to put it into words to share it with someone already inside his mind and his feelings.

Asch is only answered with a laugh.


	7. Conjoined

The Tower of Rem. Luke never thought the events that happened there would contribute so much to his continued life. He had, in fact, believed quite the opposite, that the only thing they would be contributing to his lifespan would be shortening it.

He had been coming apart one moment, dissolving in front of his very eyes, and the next he had been solid and so very warm and his fonons were tied together by something that wasn't quite self, but wasn't quite not-self either.

As time went on, he had felt it stir, awaken more. It wanted his self, or to be him, consume him, but it also wanted to protect him, keep him alive. The contradictory urges had felt so familiar. He hadn't known what it was at the time, but he had learned how to distinguish it from himself, how to separate and keep it away if he needed to.

It had taken him far too long to realize that it had been some unconscious part of Asch and it had been holding him together far after the time he was supposed to have died. He hadn't understood until he felt the rest of Asch flooding into him in Eldrant, but even then he hadn't had time to process the implications.

Now, facing Lorelei in the core, task done and congratulations received, he was ready to rest. He could feel Asch already devouring his self, piece by piece, and found himself strangely fine with it. He would miss his friends, for sure, but he was giving his life back to his original, who deserved a second chance as Luke had already gotten before.

It wasn't until Lorelei nudged his mind that he even thought to consider that Asch's feelings might differ, that there might be another option. Feeling tentatively out towards Asch with his mind, he recoiled sharply at the frantic guilt and helplessness he felt there.

Asch didn't want to accept his life, the last thing he had left to give? No, that wasn't quite right. Asch didn't want to kill him, but couldn't stop it, Luke realized with a sickened lurch.

Asch wanted them both to live? Yes, Luke could see it clearly now that he was paying attention. A nod from Lorelei answered his half formed question of whether it was even possible for both of them to live in his body.

But Asch still wasn't stopping his slow encroachment on Luke's self. Oh, Luke realized with another lurch, he had no idea how to. Asch had never felt anything like this before, and barely had any conscious idea of what was going on aside from that when it was finished he would be alive and Luke would be gone.

But if Asch was helpless to stop it, then how could… But that didn't ring true. Luke had been dealing with feelings, situations like this for weeks, months now. He _did_ know how to stop it, if he chose to.

And not choosing to do so would totally ignore Asch's right to have a choice in this decision. Would be ignoring Asch's rage and sorrow and panic building up to a fervor pitch.

Luke pulled away from those feelings a bit to calm himself, then made use of all the practice he hadn't even known he was getting to gently stop Asch. It was exactly the same as what he had done before, only on a larger scale.

Asch's relief washed over them both, slowly fading as Luke gave them both a moment to mentally breathe. It almost disappeared entirely when Asch came to his senses a bit more and realized that his fonons were still straining, waiting for Luke's attention to be diverted for even a moment, to resume their slow corrosion of Luke's self. They couldn't live like this, he was thinking, not if he had no control over himself in this way.

Luke tentatively reached out a feeling-memory to Asch, who had a moment of hesitation and fear before touching it. It was different, he could feel, when they were both willing participants. Like he wasn't stealing something from Luke so much as sharing it with him. Luke slowly guided him through all his previous experiences with keeping himself separate, preventing himself from being devoured.

Asch caught on quickly, and with only minor difficulty, now that he knew how, wrested control of his fonons back to himself. Safe. They could both feel it when he was done, that lifting of tension that comes with the removal of a death sentence.

Lorelei nodded to them once more, satisfied that both of its scions were safe and content, before taking off for the fon belt.

It certainly wasn't like before. Asch had already assimilated large parts of Luke before the process was stopped, so they'd probably never be entirely separate again. But they were both there, distinctly different, distinctly alive.


	8. Unbound

They are in the core, the three of them. It is time for Lorelei to go, and it is offering to take Luke with it, rather than let him die here.

Asch is coming back to life, and Luke knows he can feel Luke slipping farther away the closer he gets to life.

_Is there any way I could stay with him?_ he asks Lorelei. He can feel the hesitation before Lorelei replies.

_I could… bind you to that plane of existence. But it would be permanent. Even in his death._

Luke would stay there with him, trapped forever, unable to move on, if it was what Asch wanted, would make him happy. But Asch is revolted by the very thought when he sees it in Luke's mind. Luke can feel him casting about for some other way. But Lorelei would know if there was one, and there isn't.

Asch is distinctly unsatisfied with this answer, but Luke sees that he'd be miserable if Luke went ahead with the binding anyway. And just knowing that Asch cares enough that he'd be upset to doom Luke like that is enough happiness for a lifetime, Luke thinks.

So he leaves.


	9. Strand

Some days Asch can't take any more. Life is far too normal, too mundane.

It continues on like clockwork whose gears had been jammed up, but that foreign element had been removed. Some wrench in the cosmic plan taken out, and now everything ran far too smoothly for Asch's liking.

He was king, he had married Natalia, his queen. They were happy, had a son who he had insisted that she insist be named Luke, the name Asch had never taken back for his own. At least someone would always remember their personal cosmic wrench, no matter the passage of time.

They did love each other, and loved their country dearly as well. Natalia had never stopped her humanitarian efforts, and had even drawn Asch into some of them. He liked that they kept him busy, and had started a few projects of his own.

But he never wants time to reflect, to think of how much he doesn't deserve, most of the world doesn't deserve, this happy ending handed to them on the funeral pyre of the one who did deserve it.

He's seen the memories, watched them all. The memories that aren't his, or weren't, but are his now, sort of. Watched the painstaking ascent into independence, his own decline into madness.

He had been a stark raving lunatic towards the end, he realizes now, possibly an effect of the deterioration and decline of his body. Possibly merely because he couldn't get over his own issues and couldn't stand watching someone so similar get over his with such seeming ease.

He knows down to every last detail exactly how much better, how much more worthy, the one whose life he had consumed to survive was to live the life he is living now.

Days like those, when he has nothing to do but reflect, he just wants to start walking. He wants to leave the city, and just keep going to the nearest body of water, not even stopping then, just walking right into it and straight to the bottom. He wants to, but he wouldn't.

When the feelings build up and he feels like he can't stop himself from doing so, he turns them inwards. He reaches for the golden power that had resided just outside of himself ever since he was ten, but was now back in its proper place inside him. He turns those feelings into feelings of sinking into that golden power, drowning in it, and he feels compassion and joy radiating from within it, enveloping, embracing him.

_He's_ not here, this isn't some cosmic line to the feelings of the dead. He knows that they're the echoes of feelings, the strongest left behind just for him, because _he_ had known days like these would come, and had seen some kind of merit in keeping him alive.

The feelings, echoes, calm him, making that urge, itch to jump up and leave, fade away. He floats to the surface of the gold power, knowing he could destroy and reform this entire world if he wanted to, but also knowing that someone whose judgment had proven to be infinitely wiser than his had already done so, without even needing to use this power, and out of respect he lets the world be and just floats in the knowing that he could.

He has to come out, back to the outer world, eventually. But that is not now, and this is the only time he doesn't feel like he's still burning on the world's largest funeral pyre, or was it the world's funeral pyre?

He floats, content but never quite happy.


	10. Severed

Jade had secluded himself, in a lab he none of them had known he had kept, for months after Asch's return. They had all thought that throwing himself into his work was his way of mourning Luke, but had Luke been there, he could have told them their error. After all, he couln't be mourning someone whose death he didn't accept.

All Jade's theories had been bourne out, proven true on the one facet of fomicry he had most hoped to be wrong about. He had been surprised and proven wrong, or at least not-quite-right, in every other way when he had tried to predict how it would go between those two, so why would he now have to be correct?

But if he had been correct once, he could be correct again. He just had to figure out how. He knew he was being obsessive over bringing a dead friend back to life again and wondered if they'd approve, not that that really mattered to him. Would Luke even want his life back? Of course, it wasn't like Luke was even truly dead, the Big Bang wasn't nearly that cut and dry, but something important was eluding Jade. He hated knowing that the answer was there, but being unable to see it.

It wasn't until he was taking a break in a field and was suddenly drawn into a monster battle that it hit him. As he separated his spear with barely a thought to thrust at the monster, it occurred to him that the Big Bang effect was based on the contamination effect he took advantage of to store his spear, just on an organic-organic basis, not an organic-inorganic basis.

He had to get back to his lab right away to begin on the theories thundering through his mind, so he had fled the battle immediately.

Fonons of organic material and inorganic material are basically different. That made the chances of rejection during integration for something like his spear much greater, but separation quite simple. All he had to do was find the inorganic fonons out of those on his arm, and reassemble them. With two sets of organic material, like a replica and original, the integration is almost assured to go smoothly, but could separation even be possible?

Firstly he'd need Asch to be able to separate himself from Luke-self, then be able to use his hyperresonance to break down the Luke-bits and reassemble them separately from himself.

There were many risks. Hyperresonances were still poorly understood and barely controlled at best. And even if they could re-separate his body, there might not be anything of his mind left to inhabit it, leaving them with a comatose Luke and a traumatized or possibly dead Asch, or they could end up with Asch's dead body and short-haired Luke exactly as they were immediately before the Big Bang. And, on the off chance that it all went off without a hitch, would there be any way to prevent the Big Bang effect from happening all over again?

He had too many questions and too many dark, nasty answers to get everyone's hopes up over the tiny chance.

But he wasn't just going to give up either. So he decided to bring Asch in, to try it in secret. That way nothing important would be lost either way.

He disclosed all the risks in detailed and explicit manner. Nobody would be able to say Asch hadn't known what he was getting into. Asch had insisted on doing it anyway.

Jade had to run some tests first, learn about his hyperresonance, his control, his ability to differentiate what was his and what had been Luke's. Asch let him, despite his aversion and twitchy response to doctors and experimentation. Anything to bring him back.

The results came back satisfactory, but not overwhelmingly positive. They had each known they would be going ahead anyway, no matter what the test results came back as, so even this was moralizing.

They decided to do it the next day. That would give Asch time to rest after the tests and Jade time to make a few preparations.

The next day, early enough, both were in the lab room, ready to begin.

Asch stood before the lab table, a patient examining table covered with a fresh cloth, and took a few slow, deep breaths before diving into his task.

The power was easy enough to call, to mould. The glow spread from his hands down into a cloud of seventh fonons he had called into hovering over the table. Once the basic form was set he turned inwards, focused on drawing out all the pieces of Luke he had absorbed in the merger, forcing them out through his hands, into the form beginning to coalesce out of the cloud on the table.

Then he felt a deep golden power, mind, flooding into him, both acutely foreign and achingly familiar, gently taking control of the process from him.

He knew he could stop it if he wanted to, but somehow, he couldn't want to. It felt reassuring and forcibly soothing, and he couldn't even be terrified as he knew he should be. He could make no outward sign of this terribly intimate, terribly dangerous invasion either. He wondered detachedly if Jade could tell what was happening.

It was scouring him, much more quickly and effectively than he could himself, for any remnants of Luke he had missed. He supposed that he should be grateful that this entity that had moved into his body and taken control seemed to share his goal, but then he was distracted as it dragged into him something so familiar that he couldn't help the word slipping out.

"Luke."

His mind, or his soul, or whatever piece Jade had been worried would be missing was being dragged into Asch from what felt like a huge distance, and once there forced out his hands into the body on the bed. It was a body now, Luke's body, with Luke's memories and Luke's fonons waiting in it for that last piece.

The final bit of Luke drained from him, and Asch would have slumped to the floor from exhaustion, from the hollow feeling of sudden emptyness, if the entity wasn't still in him, holding him up. The Luke on the table blinked and looked up at him.

Asch had a moment of intense vertigo where he could see both Luke on the table and himself leaning over the table before there was a sharp pain and wrenching in his mind. When it passed, he was entirely just himself again, looking down at Luke on the table. All that remained in him of the entity was its voice.

_I've severed you two, lest the merger happen again. Live, and be proud of all you have done._

And it was gone. Only while it was leaving, after hearing Luke whisper his thanks, did Asch realize it had been Lorelei who had invaded him, helped them.

But then Luke was smiling up at him, looking at Jade, sitting up, and trying to say and do fifty different things at once. His eager, lively eyes made Asch feel hopeful for once. He wasn't sure what exactly he was hopeful about, but it was such a pleasant feeling that he didn't bother to worry about that detail.

Blinking when the room swayed before his eyes, he lay down on the table Luke had just vacated. While Luke spoke with Jade, he decided that it'd be alright to pass out for a little bit, because he knew things would still be better than alright for the first time in three years when he woke up.


	11. Braid

Natalia had married Luke fon Fabre.

Technically and legally, they both still bore the right to that name. So, both of her precious childhood friends had become her king, and she their queen.

Things had been awkward immediately after Luke's return. It wasn't until a week afterwards, when she was back in the valley, watching Hod and mourning Asch, that things had gotten better. When he had impossibly shown up in the field with his ever-present scowl, muttering about Luke being too impatient and running off ahead. It was so typical it almost hurt to see.

She had smiled, run to him, needing to touch, confirm the reality or unreality of this insane hallucination. But he had been real, and her Asch, _their_ Asch, and he had come back as promised.

She brought him back home in secret, under the guise of Luke, and everything had fallen into place nearly perfectly after that. Luke's guilt had vanished, and Asch seemed much more stable, mature mentally now. Now that neither was dying and both had a place, they got along much better.

They had only informed their immediate family and friends of Asch's return. Only the people who had cared enough to still remember him after the years of absence. Suzanne, who had almost finished crying about Luke's return, started bawling again in sheer joy that both her boys were safe and home. Dark Dream had even put on a special no admission charged performance in Baticul at the news, not that the majority of the crowd knew why they were getting that treat.

When she had announced her marriage to Luke, the others were confused and stunned, until she explained their plan. Afterwards, when they had understood, they had gotten Tear's blessing and Guy's amused smile, as if he had seen this coming.

Natalia wanted both of them, her precious childhood friends, but more importantly, she wanted them both happy.

And with so few people able to tell them apart, it'd be easy for them to switch off when one needed a break from the political machinations of being king. But it'd also easy for them to come back because she'd be waiting and they can share the memories needed to reassume the game.

The people who'd care about them switching wouldn't be able to tell, didn't even know there was a possibility of substitution, and the people who could tell when they're switching wouldn't care. They might even admit it to be a good idea. The thought of either one tied down, trapped in that constrained role, inescapable and not able to even want to escape for the sake of the country and citizens... Neither of them had proven to do well in captivity.

So this was a win-win-win situation for the three of them, and she was very proud of herself for having engineered it.

* * *

"She figured it out." Luke said, as if continuing a conversation they had been previously holding, despite the fact that Asch had no idea what he was talking about.

"Hn?"

"I never told anyone, you know? But she figured it out anyway."

"What nonsense are you spouting now?"

"She figured it out from what you said, at the Tower of Rem, right before- That you could've taken control of the hyperresonance, could've taken me apart and used me for seventh fonons just like the other replicas. Could've been rid of me for good, and that you made a conscious effort not to."

Asch had never known that Luke had fully comprehended that. He might respect him a little more for realizing it. And that did make things make a little more sense now. They, Natalia and Luke, hadn't had a sudden change of heart, they'd just put together all the little clues he'd been emitting and trying to hide.

His kind words to Natalia, his less-than-cold actions towards Luke had been what they were watching, not his cold actions towards Natalia and harsh words to Luke.

He looks at Luke's nervous expression, and waves him off like they had just been talking about what clothes to wear today, or something equally unimportant. Luke grins at him lopsidedly and changes the topic, because he knows that Asch understands, but just doesn't have the words for him to say so.

* * *

When Natalia feels most happy, on nights when she has both of her most precious people next to her, she is at a loss for words. All she can find to express her contentment and the same old words that it began with. She leans in and whispers in their ears.

"We've made it though all of this alive. Let's change this country. Together."


	12. Void

Inspired by the fact that I've seen/written 'it's Luke' stories, 'it's Asch' stories, and 'it's both' stories, but have never even seen an 'it's neither' story.

* * *

The return of Luke fon Fabre was heralded all over the world. The hero who had saved them, and now would become their lasting peace.

Only one knew that neither Luke nor Asch would be returning, couldn't return.

The first few weeks had been hardest on Lorelei, trying to adapt to being a person, this person. After that, it became entirely too easy to play along, seeing as everyone watching was so strongly longing to be fooled into thinking their friend, comrade, had returned. They had readily supplied the excuse of trauma for any of its erratic behavior in those difficult weeks.

It had given them a lovely story of reconciliation between its 'selves', and afterward would become whichever persona the person it was speaking with needed to see most. Their smiles and tender looks were enough to say how good of a job it was doing. Some days it could even almost believe the act itself.

It had taken Lorelei two whole years to pull itself together into a human form, the only human form it was intimately acquainted with. Lorelei felt it had to honor the last request of each of its scions before they had become a part of the oneness that would be the new Lorelei. The same request from both, for an end to the sorrow and pain of their friends.

They aren't dead, its precious isofones, not really, but neither do they exist as they did before. Can't come back to keep their promises and can't stand to see them broken. This Lorelei was no longer part of the world, no longer needed, merely a relic of a better forgotten past. So it had done the only thing it could to ease the minds of its precious isofones, and taken up their mantle, their life, their promises.

Its dwindling energy would not last forever anymore, but it had, appropriately enough, worked out to be just about the proper amount to simulate a human lifespan. After that, after finishing this final task, Lorelei would finally be able to go to its rest, content in the knowledge of the world's safety and its precious isofones' happiness.


End file.
